PM, Sonia fail to garner votes for Goa Congress

Panaji, March 7 (IANS) Assembly constituencies in Goa where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Congress president Sonia Gandhi campaigned have resulted in dismal returns for the Congress.

Sonia Gandhi’s rally at the Fatorda constituency in South Goa, 35 kms from here Feb 25 appears to have failed to cheer up the Congress voters there, with the party’s candidate M.K. Shaikh garnering a dismal 660 votes. Congress rebel Vijai Sardesai won the seat with a whopping 10,375 votes, with the BJP’s Damu Naik coming in second with 8,436 votes. Shaikh was ranked fifth in the list of performers.
In North Goa’s Sanquelim constituency, 35 kms from here, where Manmohan Singh addressed a public rally, Congress candidate Pratap Gawas lost by a margin of 7,000 plus votes to his nearest rival, Pramod Sawant of the BJP.
Manmohan Singh’s rally was marked by chaos and confusion, with the public address system failing for nearly half-an-hour while the prime minister was in mid-speech. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has also asked the police to probe communal literature being distributed by the Congress party to the 7,000-odd people who attended the rally.